The exchange on Meet the Press on Sunday began with Mr Todd asking Mr Giuliani whether the Trump team was stalling about a possible testimony at the inquiry led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller into alleged meddling by Russia in the 2016 US election.

Mr Giuliani said: "I'm not going to be rushed into having him testify so can he can be trapped into perjury."

He added: "When you tell me that he should testify because he's going to tell the truth and he shouldn't worry, well that's so silly because it's somebody's version of the truth. Not the truth."

Todd responded: "Truth is truth."

Mr Giuliani said: "Truth isn't truth."

The interviewer put his hand on his forehead and said: "This is going to become a bad meme!"

Rudy is a lying scumbag, a corporate ladder climber, and a political backstabber, but he used to be a pretty competent lawyer back in the day. Now he's just a senile old man who would be better off spending his time fixing traffic tickets.